Comes a Horseman (1978)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Alan J. Pakula

Writer:

Dennis Lynton Clark (writer)

Release Date:

25 October 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Western | Romance

Tagline:

She was as strong as the land for which she fought. And as vunerable.

Plot:

Ella Connors is a single woman who gets pressured to sell her failing cattle farm to her corrupt ex suitor...

Plot Keywords:

Stabbing | Ranch | Gunshot Wound | Cattle Drive | Montana

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 wins

Cast

James Caan	...	Frank 'Buck' Athearn
Jane Fonda	...	Ella Connors
Jason Robards	...	Jacob 'J.W.' Ewing
George Grizzard	...	Neil Atkinson
Richard Farnsworth	...	Dodger
Jim Davis	...	Julie Blocker
Mark Harmon	...	Billy Joe Meynert
Macon McCalman	...	Virgil Hoverton
Basil Hoffman	...	George Bascomb
James Kline	...	Ralph Cole
James Keach	...	Emil Kroegh
Clifford A. Pellow	...	Cattle Buyer

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (35 mm prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Netherlands:16 | Sweden:15 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | USA:PG (certificate #25341) | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Buckskin Joe Frontier Town & Railway - 1193 Fremont County Road 3A, Canon City, Colorado, USA

Company:

Chartoff-Winkler Productions

Trivia:

Stunt man Jim Sheppard was killed when a horse that was dragging him veered from its course and caused him to hit his head on a fence post.

Goofs:

Continuity: Frank's saddle has a holster but no rifle when he leaves his horse outside the ranch house near the end. He later uses the rifle from the holster to shoot the bad guys.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Big Guns Talk: The Story of the Western (1997) (TV)

Load of crap

Pointless movie from the late '70s. DVD review.

With the help of Caan a woman (Fonda) battles a local oil company and surrounding landowners.

Don't be fooled by its story Comes a Horseman is crap. You don't need to be a movie buff to realise that most films set in wide, open, rural landscapes with mountains in the background usually end with a wooden house being set on fire. The acting here is just as wooden as that house. We've all seen these type of movies, in fact they're still getting made: wide shots, slow pacing, photogenic rural people getting bullied by money-grabbing outsiders, a tired environmental theme, beautiful cinematography, and short violent scenes. Although set in WW2 they even managed to cut to a noisy airplane - another '70s cinema cliché. Then there's Fonda (without makeup) looking older than usual. Although this could be considered a modern western I've never seen such a bad shoot-out finale in a movie. This is the kind of picture that would have got respectable reviews on release but looks terribly dated now. Blame all of those Cold Mountain/Assassination of Jesse James-type movies on this!

Comes a Horseman is just crap.